Walde Penthouse

Location, Location, Location

You are in the heart of Zermatt, that old quarter named for the intrepid English climbers of the Victorian era who loved this town and its mountains – Englischer Viertel. The church, still at the heart of the local Zermatt community, is close. You are steps away from the enchanting church square, and, for many well-seasoned Zermatt devotés, the even more enchanting Elsie’s Bar.  Yet, unlike traditional lodgings in this enclave, the Walde Penthouse is not old and dark. It looks to the river; it is full of light and you can see the Matterhorn.

 The Walde Penthouse offers sumptuous accommodation for four guests, with living and dining space that has sofas capacious enough, a table long enough, and sufficient dining chairs, to entertain and to enjoy somewhat more luxurious living than many apartments for four. Magnificent double height floor to ceiling windows take in a perspective that is so quintessentially Zermatt you would pick up an ice-axe and lace those leather boots in a heart-beat. The river in its channel gushes past, you look across to larch covered slopes and the tracks where the Gornergratbahn ascends to Riffelalp, you can count the peaks until you see the big one. You are always aware of the presence of the Horn.

The Walde Penthouse is a winter holiday apartment that excels in creating an ambiance that is simultaneously sophisticated and down-to-earth. Granite floors and weathered timber rafters provide a sense of place while the living is profoundly comfortable. A wood fire flickers behind glass doors. The kitchen, with its privileged perspective on the church clock, is thoroughly well-equipped and yet discretely so.

A touch of richly flamboyant wallpaper in the bedrooms takes you back to those Victorians but you will sleep nestled under light fluffy duvets and the bathrooms are thoroughly 21st century, one with a large walk-in shower, the other with a bathtub. A private sauna for an apartment for four is a rare find but descend to the building’s basement and there, in a well-appointed room with a huge shower and recliners to take a rest between bouts in the heat, is the sauna for your exclusive use.

As you pour your morning coffee by the kitchen window, you can watch the hands tick towards the hour. It is pleasant then to remember that your delightful apartment is only a few short minutes’ walk to the Matterhorn Express and the beginning of another epic day in the mountains.